Posts Tagged «politics»

Earlier today, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler publicly announced that he will submit a proposal this week that reclassifies ISPs as common carriers under Title II. This is just the beginning, but it’s incredibly heartening to see Wheeler change course so drastically in favor of consumers.

It is exceedingly hard to find an angle that presents The Interview in a positive light — and yet, of course, Sony Pictures’ marketing department has managed to do just that. Yesterday, four days after the film’s release on YouTube, Google Play Movies, and Xbox Video, The Interview became Sony’s ‘#1 online film of all time,’ grossing $15 million from sales and rentals. In other news, however, it would appear, rather ironically, that Sony used a popular K-pop song without permission of artist.

Yesterday evening, North Korea was unceremoniously knocked off the internet by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. This comes shortly after the US government promised a ‘proportional response’ to the Sony Pictures hack, which the FBI believes was carried out by North Korea. While it would be rather funny if the US government was responsible for taking North Korea off the internet, it’s more likely to be the actions of some disgruntled hacktivists such as Anonymous or Lizard Squad.

President Barack Obama, to kick off the annual Computer Science Education Week, has become the first US president (at least as far as we know) to write a computer program. While this might not seem like a big deal, this will be seen as a glowing endorsement for the code literacy movement — a campaign that, for the last couple of years, has been extolling the virtues of teaching kids how to program.

According to Earth’s dedicated team of satellite observers, Russia is developing a satellite that can chase down other satellites. Obviously, such an ability could be used for the forces of good, such as repairing or refueling other spacecraft — but the rest of the world is worried that Russia might be looking to blow up other satellites, or to get close enough that it can take photos of classified designs or eavesdrop on communications.

Proving yet again that the US government can show a surprising soupçon of tenacity when it comes to invading privacy and occasionally catching a terrorist, a new report claims that the US Marshals Service — since 2007 — has been criss-crossing the country with small airplanes equipped with fake cell towers. These small aircraft (fixed-wing Cessnas) intercept communications between your mobile phone and the carrier’s legitimate cell tower, allowing the US Marshals to find and triangulate the exact location of a target. Obviously, the primary target of the system is criminals — but the report says a lot of “innocent Americans” are also being tagged by the program.

President Obama, at long last, has come out in defense of net neutrality. In a short statement (video below), he urges the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt “the strongest possible rules” to protect net neutrality, and to finally reclassify internet providers as common carriers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. Ultimately, the FCC is an independent agency that Obama can’t directly affect — but presumably Obama is praying that his protestations, plus the 3.7 million other people who have submitted comments over the FCC’s net neutrality plans, will be enough to turn the tide.

The Global Positioning System, or GPS, has — somewhat surprisingly — found itself at the heart of modern civilization. There is no doubt that the ubiquity of GPS across all areas of civilian, commercial, and scientific endeavor has improved the quality of life for billions of people. It is a little bit scary, then, that GPS can very easily be jammed or disrupted by terrorists or other nefarious actors. What are the alternatives? Do we have a backup?

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